Chinese customs seize smuggled bird's nests

NANNING - Custom officials in southern Chinese city of Nanning said Wednesday that they had detained nine suspects for smuggling edible bird's nests.

Around 36 kg of the edible bird's nests, which are highly prized due to nutritional value, have been seized in the southern provinces of Guangdong and Fujian and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Custom police said a gang led by two suspects surnamed Jin and Li had been purchasing edible bird's nests from a supplier in Indonesia since 2018, and smuggled the nests into China through the border city of Chongzuo in Guangxi.

The gang was involved in smuggling around 160 tonnes of edible bird's nests, with an estimated value of over 2 billion yuan (about 300 million US dollars). They are suspected of evading taxes worth 320 million yuan.